Deep in the protected hollows of Concord's Town Forest, grows a venerable and beautiful white pine, which I met for the first time in the spring of 2010. Her exuberant and towering feminine form and the hallmarks of significant age, prompted me to call her the Grandmother tree, and I have made many pilgrimages to commune with her since our first meeting.
Her trunk is pillar-like and tall, covered with a deeply furrowed bark that has patches of exfoliation. Enormous roots brace the tree, looking like large toes curling into the high duff (leaf litter) mound at her base. Massive limbs at the top rise up to the sky and the light, to hold spare tufts of dark green foliage interspersed with wind-snapped branches.
Her trunk is pillar-like and tall, covered with a deeply furrowed bark that has patches of exfoliation. Enormous roots brace the tree, looking like large toes curling into the high duff (leaf litter) mound at her base. Massive limbs at the top rise up to the sky and the light, to hold spare tufts of dark green foliage interspersed with wind-snapped branches.